I hate making "no-duh" statements. So, to say a trillion is a lot is, well, no-duh. But the way the President and congress kick around trillions like its monopoly money, well, it bothers me. Because a trillion is a lot. The way these clowns are printing it up, I think, at this point, Monopoly money has more value. But I digress.
Debt in my personal life bothers me. Not because I can't make the payments, but because I'm taking money from my family and giving it to the banks in interest. The thought of it makes me jittery. So why do politicians seemingly have no problem taking money from you and giving it to the banks in the form of interest on America's debt? Random facts that I hope will culminate into a point (and using round numbers because my math brain is lesser than my communication brain):
From the time of George Washington through the end of George W. Bush, America racked up $8 trillion. A trillion is a lot. It's a million millions. Think about what we developed in that time frame. Transportation systems including airports and interstate highways. They're bad, but they're spendy: Wars. The Revolutionary War. The War of 1812. The Civil War. WWI. WWII. Vietnam. Korea. The Gulf Wars. Every battleship, every destroyer, every aircraft carrier, every plane, every tank, etc. The Manhattan Project. All done while America amassed $8 trillion in debt. A trillion is a lot. Throw in "The Great Society." Welfare. Food assistance. Power plants. Think of the bloated totality of federal government spending. Its total cost was considerably more than $8 trillion. But that is the amount on the credit card that Americans owe for that time period.
That's a lot of interest they're taking out of your pockets.
Now, let's go back to early March 2020. COVID-19 is starting to spook our dear leaders. So they pass an $8.3 billion emergency spending package. You know. To battle COVID. How quaint. $8.3 billion. A billion is only one-one-thousandth of a trillion. And a trillion is a lot. Yup, $8.3 billion - that's a lot - and that will combat COVID.
Fast forward to Wednesday night. President Biden asked for $80 billionjust to give to the IRS so they can bulk up their forces to shake down the American people, especially you nasty rich people. TEN TIMES the original COVID spending package going to just one agency - the one whose job it is to separate you from your money. Small fact.
Back to March 2020, fast forward a few days to March 18, 2020, congress passed the Family First Coronavirus Response Act. That was $192 billion. A lot of money, but still no trillion.
Fast forward just nine more days - March 27, 2020 - Congress passed the $2 trillion CARES Act. (HERE is all 335-pages of it.) Now we're talking! Because a trillion is a lot. $2 trillion smackers were unheard of - it had never been done in American history - but America had never been faced with such a massive problem as a virus with a 99.7% survival rate. So we needed to indebt ourselves to that level, right?! But $2 trillion printed out of thin air - that'll tide us over, dontcha think?!
Fast forward to April 24, 2020. Ya know, just about a month later. But THIS was important because it was the paycheck protection program (in retrospect, the only thing your paycheck needed protection from was government overreach in response to a virus, but I digress) and the money went to small businesses and hospitals so they could mitigate the impacts of an overreaching government.
In a show of tremendous restraint, congress put your credit card away and didn't spend any of your dough for a little more than six months. You'll just have to get by on the $2.7 trillion that they gave you. Of your money.
Now it's December 27, 2020. Congress whipped out your plastic and charge $868 billion, as part of the $1.4 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, in the name of economic recovery, dontcha know. Remember this one - everyone was all mad that they were only going to get a $600 check, yet Sudanese Economic Development was going to get $700 million and Cambodia was getting $85.5 million and $325 million was going to Congo and $1.65 billion was going to Jordan and $130 million was going to empowering women’s equality and equity abroad - remember that one? That was a good spend binge.
So, doing the math in 2020, $3.068 trillion in one year alone. Under a supposed fiscal conservative in President Trump. We haven't even gotten to President Biden yet. Joseph Robinette Biden is the man with the (multi) trillion plan(s). Read about Uncle Joe's trillion-dollar plans.
There's the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. Because, you know, America needs to be rescued, not from the devastating impact of COVID, but from the government's devastating reaction to COVID. I don't fear a virus. I know how to protect myself from that. Someone, please tell me how I can protect myself from politicians buying votes with my credit card?!
By the way, that's only the second time that any human beings on the planet have ever gotten together and said, "let's charge $1.9 trillion dollars." The first was the same damn congress less than one year prior. All in the name of responding to a virus that you have a 99.7% chance of surviving - IF you contract it.
On Wednesday, Uncle Joe pitched $1.8 trillion in the American Family Plan and reinforced his pitch for $2.3 trillion in the American Labor Unions, er, JOBS Plan. Every pork-filled, gluttonous spending spree needs a catchy name and acronym.
So, doing loose math. Trump did $3.068 trillion in 2020 PLUS Biden's actual/proposed $6 trillion in the first 100 days of his presidency EQUALS $9.068 trillion! We did it, 'Merica! We went further in the last 14-months than we did in the first 240-years of our history.
A trillion is a lot.
Just to muster some images for you...
I believe in Jesus and he is a benevolent man with eternal life. So, if the Federal Reserve would have approached JC at the time he walked the Earth in human form 2,000 years ago and said, "Further your ministry, Rabi. We have $1 trillion for you. Give away a $1 million a day to the poor." If he would have started in His day - $1 million a day - he'd still be handing out money today. A trillion is a million millions. One million divided by 365 days (not accounting for leap years, that's complex math) is 2,739 years. JC has about 718 more years of giving away $1 million a day. A trillion is a lot.
A second isn't much time. It sounds like something your kid would say, "GAAAAH, I've been waiting like a trillion seconds." There are 86,400 seconds in a day. One million seconds is about 11-1/2 days. One billion seconds is 31.7 years. One trillion seconds is 31,709 years. A trillion is a lot.
Look at the money we have spent in an effort to mitigate a virus you have a 99.7% chance of surviving if you get it! Hell, we could smother that virus in dollar bills. Let's do that math.
The U.S. dollar bill is 6.14 inches long, 2.61 inches wide, and .0043 inches thick. So, if you stacked a billion dollar bills on top of each other, the stack would reach 67.9 miles. If you stacked a trillion dollar bills, the column would reach 67,866 - a little more than 25% of the way to the moon. A trillion is a lot.
A billion dollar bills laid end to end would stretch 96,900 miles, winding around the Earth nearly four times. A trillion dollars laid end-to-end would stretch for 96,906,656 miles, a distance farther than the sun. If you laid one billion dollars side by side like tile, they would cover about four square miles. A trillion dollars would cover approximately 3,992 miles, or just a few miles short of covering Weld County. A trillion is a lot.
So I have given examples of how a trillion is a lot.
Now, let me ask, where's all that money? Did it pave your street? Repair your sewer plant? Improve daycare? Build a school? (No, in Johnstown, the voters significantly raised our tax bill to do that - no Trump/Biden trillions to be seen.) Gas is more expensive. Homes are more expensive. Have you priced a damn sheet of plywood?! It's a simple question - a trillion is a lot and we've either spent or are proposing to spend nine of 'em. Where's that money? Even scarier, does America even care? I do. We should. Because we are enslaving generations to come.